Creamy Cabbage Soup

Sometimes it’s hard being the only one in a family of four who actually enjoys food – all kinds of food. If it’s edible, I’m willing to try it – except if it has eyeballs. I leave those types of things alone. At any rate, I don’t consider myself to be at all picky, but I live with three very picky (and somewhat unpredictable) eaters. They won’t touch a lot of things I want to fix, so I end up having to eat it all myself (and most of the time, that’s just fine with me).

Take, for example, the other day when I wanted to try out a recipe for potato salad slaw I found in one of my husband’s grandmother’s old cookbooks. I bought a head of cabbage, my husband took one look at it, and wrinkled his nose in distaste. Now, keep in mind, I know for a fact this guy does eat slaw (I also know he doesn’t eat potato salad, but this potato salad recipe didn’t have anything in it he wouldn’t eat, so I thought it was worth a try). Silly me! He just shook his head and said, “I’ve never met a potato salad I liked, and I don’t think I’ll like this one.” I love that man. I really do, but oh that comment made me so mad!

So, I had a head of cabbage I had to do something with, so I decided to cook it up with some bacon and cheddar cheese. That’s the Southern way to do it, you know. Everything’s better with bacon and cheese. But I found that I had a lot of chopped cabbage, and since I knew I was the only one who was going to be eating it (my girls took one look and ran out of the room), I thought I might vary the cabbage cooking a bit. That’s where this creamy cabbage soup comes in. It doesn’t have bacon or cheese, but it’s every bit as delicious as my old standby cooked cabbage recipe. Here’s how to make it:

Creamy Cabbage Soup

Recipe Type: Main

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

This creamy cabbage soup recipe is the perfect way to warm up on a cold day. It’s an excellent alternative to traditionally cooked cabbage, and it can even be altered to make it a vegetarian dish.

Ingredients

½ chopped medium green cabbage (about 12 ounces, total)

2 ounces of butter

2 chopped leeks

1 potato, peeled and sliced

4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 ½ cups milk

1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano flakes

Instructions

Chop half the green cabbage up into small cubes.

In a large saucepan, bring about 2 inches of lightly salted water to a boil and add the cabbage cubes

Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

Set aside to cool.

In a large skillet, melt the butter and sauté the chopped leeks gently for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until tender.

Add the sliced potato and cook for another few minutes.

Pour in the broth, bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Pour the cabbage and the liquid into the potato and leek mixture.

Cook everything for another 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Remove pan from heat, and add the milk and oregano.

Stir well, cover, and set aside for about 15 minutes.

Pour half the soup into a blender, and blend gently for about 30 seconds.